Rose Mathews
and
Tony McNally
, both 66-year-old pensioners from Lisarow, NSW, face the loss of their home after borrowing on a loan-to-value ratio of more than 80 per cent to buy a $320,000 apartment.

The couple, who claim to have been pressured at a property seminar, said they were told it would double in value in seven years and be easy to rent.

It has nearly halved in value to $165,000 and they cannot find a tenant.

Ms Mathews claims the sellers did not inquire about their earnings, life style and ability to maintain payments.

They were also not told the sellers were earning a commission.

Property spruikers routinely earn between 6 per cent and 10 per cent commission on the property sales.

In addition they will also receive fees on the mortgage along with a cut on the conveyancing and other professional services.

Such people are preying on potential buyers’ ignorance, fear and greed about earning fortunes from property investment, say financial and property experts.

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Investors, many of them close to retirement, are being encouraged to take out mortgages with loan-to-value ratios topping 90 per cent and use equity in successive properties to build several properties, the experts claim.

“Rising property prices, low interest rates and many peoples’ fears about being able to fund their retirement has triggered a three-fold in property seminars being put on by spruikers wanting to flog apartments and houses," Neil Jenman, a consumer advocate, said.

The seminars are typically free and offer strategies for “getting rich quick" by purchasing multiple properties and living off the income and capital growth, the experts claim.

A private detective, who has investigated the scheme for 10 years, said: “They usually target mum and dad investors who own their own house, or have equity that they can borrow against. They are brow-beaten into signing a contract for an over-priced property."

The deals regularly unravel very quickly because rising interest rates, falling prices, inability to find a tenant or not being able to meet running costs forces the buyer to sell, often at a big enough loss to jeopardise their family home.

“Once the buyers has signed they are on their own, the seller generally does not want to know them after they get the commission," the detective, a former police officer who did not wish to be named, said. Seminars have taken off in recent months amid the excitement of rising property prices, high clearance rates, overseas demand and demand from self-managed super funds.

Spruikers are able to exploit legal loopholes and blind-spots arising from myriad state laws and bodies policing the sector that often lack the resources or funding to shut them down and ­prosecute, according to Gerard Brody, chief executive of Consumer Action Law Centre.

AFR Weekend reported that the property spruiking boom was “10 times worse" now then during the last property boom a decade ago, according to industry veterans who witnessed the last crackdown.